


Make it New

by DoneInLove



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Baking, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, chirping in spanish, exploration of heritage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7297375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoneInLove/pseuds/DoneInLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Tango realizes that he asked so many questions about everyone else that he forgot to tell them about himself. </p><p>Alternately, in which Whiskey throws Bitty into a mini-crisis by making his favorite Argentinian dessert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make it New

**Author's Note:**

> I just really love the new frogs guys...(and I am now very protective over them since the newest update, so FIGHT ME)  
> Anyways, I fell in love with the headcanons circulating about latinx Whiskey and/or Tango, so that was the basis for this little story. And because I came across a bunch of 5-word prompts, I'm going to be knocking out a bunch of drabbles/short stories based on some of those. (This one was “killed him? wait, what, literally?”)
> 
> *Disclaimer about the authenticity added to the end note. I stand corrected.*

“Hey, Tony, I think I just killed Bitty.” Tango’s head turned towards the direction his name came from and saw his new best friend walking out of the Haus kitchen with a plate of whatever it was he and Bitty were just baking. 

“You killed him? Wait, _what_ , literally?”

Whiskey’s nose crinkled up and he let out a small huff of a laugh. Tango was starting to recognize that as a pretty substantial reaction coming from the much more reserved boy. “No dude, Bitty’s fine. Just, like, in shock I think.”

Tango twisted himself around the back of the couch as the other tadpole stopped in front of him, holding out the plate. “What are these?”

“The cause of Bitty’s little crisis, evidently.” Tango just frowned at him in confusion. “They’re _alfajores_ ,” Whiskey explained, the word rolling off his tongue expertly. “Bitty asked my favorite dessert and looked up a recipe to make these afterwards, but it was so off I just had to show him how my Abuela always made them for us. He took one bite and looked like he was torn between crying and kissing the ground I walked on.”

“Are they really that good? Bitty’s like a champion baker. Literally, I think.” They had only been at Samwell with the team for a few weeks, but they were certainly familiar with Bitty’s skill at baking by that point. And Tango was pretty sure he’d heard Bitty say something about a pie contest of something like that. He looked at the chocolate covered cookie-looking things on the plate still held towards him and breathed in the fresh baked sweetness they radiated. They did look pretty good. 

“Just try one,” Whiskey prompted, nudging the plate towards his face slightly. As he was reaching for one, Nursey, Dex, and Chowder all burst through the front door. Like hunting dogs, Tango thought, they all turned their noses towards the kitchen. 

“Bitty, what on Earth is that smell?” Dex called out, heading straight for the kitchen, his friends right behind.

Nursey laughed and added, “This smells new and downright _sexy_ , you little baking wizard. What’d you whip up for us this time?”

The three of them disappeared into the kitchen as Tango bit into the soft treat in his hand. Creamy dulce de leche oozed into his mouth around the soft chocolate coated cookies and he found himself moaning into the bite. “Oh my god Whisk,” he mumbled through the assault of flavor in his mouth. He took another bite and moaned that time too. He just couldn’t help it. Nursey’s phrasing was pretty spot on; that was a downright sexy dessert. 

Just as the others were bursting back into the living room, Tango looked up to catch Whiskey’s eyes and saw that they were blown wide and his pupils looked like they were taking over his amber irises. Tango thought he once read that people’s pupils got bigger the more turned on they were, but that couldn’t possibly be why Whiskey’s eyes looked like that, he thought. “Are you -”

He was cut off by Chowder’s voice, fraught with worry. “What’s wrong with Bitty? He looks like he’s seen a ghost guys. Ooh, those look amazing. Is that what the smell is?”

The frogs - or, well, the old frogs, since he and Whiskey were technically the frogs. Maybe. Tango was still a little confused on that part - looked even more confused than before when Tango was the one that answered C’s question. He figured it was because he was always the one asking the questions, but shrugged it off. 

“Whiskey’s favorite dessert; _alfajores_.” Whiskey was the next one to look shocked at Tango’s own flawless pronunciation of the foreign word. He realized that he might have been too busy learning about everyone else over the past few weeks that he never told the others that much about himself. He knew that Whiskey and his siblings were the first generation from their family to be born US citizens, but he must have never told him that his own Great-Grandparents immigrated from Mexico when his grandmother and great-aunt were babies. Tango made a mental note to do more actual talking in the future to avoid similar mistakes. “He made them with Bitty and they’re, like, the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Except maybe Tía Maria’s tres leches cake.” He elaborated a bit at the quirked eyebrows he saw. “My great-aunt Maria. Tía Maria just rolls off the tongue really nicely, so it’s kind of become her official title in the family. But her tres leches is to die for; passed down for like, generations or something. Maybe I’ll show Bitty how to make it too.”

Four sets of eyes were trained on Tango, all furrowed in some form of confusion or shock. He stared back at them for a second, thinking someone was going to say something. Anything. But no one did. 

“Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Nursey sighed, breaking the spell between him and the other sophomores. Whiskey, on the other hand, still looked at Tango like he’d grown another head in the last two minutes. “Okay, that sounds more like the Tango we know,” Nursey chuckled. 

“What, did it weird you out that I wasn’t asking questions?” Tango couldn’t help but feel slightly defensive about it, even though he knew that’s how he came off to new people. 

Chowder laughed, a small, almost nervous sound. “That’s not a bad thing Tango. It’s just, well, that’s the most we’ve really heard you say about yourself.”

“And the most you’ve actually said at once, without asking something afterwards,” Dex said, a smile at his lips. 

Tango shrugged, looking at the remainder of the _alfajor_ in his hand. The chocolate was starting to melt onto his fingers. He popped it all in his mouth as half of an avoidance technique, and only responded while he was licking the chocolate off his fingers after he swallowed. 

“I like to get to know other people when I meet them. So I ask a lot about them. I kind of forget to say things about me, I guess.” Tango met Whiskey’s eyes again as he licked his last finger clean, and saw that his pupils were still huge. He couldn’t think of another reason why they’d be like that, but certainly he wasn’t - was he?. 

Tango also wasn’t sure why Whiskey was the only one that hadn’t said anything yet, so he addressed him specifically. In Spanish at that, hoping to jolt him out of his trance. _“Seriously though Whisk, your grandmother knows her desserts. These are amazing.”_

Whiskey seemed to shake his head a little, more to himself to anything, and crinkled his nose again. _“Well thanks. I can’t wait to try Tía Maria’s tres leches cake.”_

“Oh no,” Bitty’s voice carried from the kitchen as he stepped through the door soon after, a half-eaten _alfajor_ in his hands, his shock evidently pushed aside for playfulness. “Now they’re gonna chirp us all and we’re not gonna know what they’re saying. The new frogs are starting to get real interesting y’all. This one,” he said, gesturing to Whiskey with his free hand, “may even have out-baked me at something.”

Whiskey’s eyes were mischievous as he looked at from Bitty to Tango and back again, and he noticed that the soft color of his eyes was starting to come back. “I haven’t out-baked you until there’s a comparison to be judged. And you didn’t even attempt to make the ridiculous recipe you found, though obviously it wouldn’t win.”

“Well shit Bits, I think you just got wrecked,” Nursey said, obviously amused with the situation. 

“I think I need to try one of these things, if they’re really that good,” Chowder mused, stepping towards Whiskey to grab one off of the plate he was still holding. The other two followed suit and the only sounds heard between them was those of pure satisfaction. 

Dex finished eating his _alfajor_ first and just nodded towards Bitty. “Yeah man, it pains me to say this, but I think you _definitely_ just got wrecked. That was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.”

Bitty sighed dramatically. “Y’all, I can’t even bring myself to deny it. Whiskey, honey, you’re gonna have to teach me how to make those again.”

“Or just come over and make them all the time,” Dex supplied with a shrug. “As long as Bitty lets you use his kitchen, that is.”

“For those,” Bitty said, eyeing the plate in Whiskey’s hand, “honey you can use my kitchen whenever you want.”

Whiskey turned once again to Tango and asked quietly, “Does your family ever put on an _asado_?”

“Like the social gathering type right?” Whiskey nodded. “We call them _carne asadas_ , but I think I’ve heard they’re similar in Argentina.”

Whiskey turned back to the upperclassmen. “Just you guys wait. Tango and me are gonna put together an _asado_ and you’ll never want us to leave the kitchen. Or, well, the yard I guess, since we’ll be by the grill all day.”

Nursey pursed his lips and the others looked equally as confused. “Isn’t _carne asada_ a type of meat dish?”

Chowder nodded quickly. “Yeah, I think I’ve ordered that at a restaurant before.”

Tango just laughed. He kind of enjoyed being the one answering questions instead of asking them. “Yes and no. A _carne asada_ and an _asado_ are like a social event. Kind of like a barbecue I guess, but like way better and they span like the whole day basically. But those words also can be used to describe the meat traditionally cooked at those events. But we’re talking about the day-long thing. I mean, I guess both, technically.” 

“Brah, that sounds amazing,” Nursey said, looking between the two younger boys. “Look at you two, bonding over your heritage and shit. Our little Latin frogs. Oh!” He gasped loudly, excitement bubbling over his whole face. “What’s the Spanish word for frogs?”

“ _Ranas_ ,” Whiskey answered slowly. “Why?”

“Oh, dude!” Dex looked at Nursey and grinned. “Nice!”

“Wait, what’s happening? I’m missing something,” Bitty said, looking oddly between the two D-men. 

“We’re the frogs, but they’re technically the frogs, so now we don’t have to call them the tadpoles anymore. They’re _las ranas_!” Nursey explained it just like he tried explaining it to Tango when they first arrived, and this time it actually made more sense, for whatever reason. “I mean, unless that’s, like, offensive or something. I’m not really familiar with Latin cultures.”

Tango chuckled and looked at Whiskey, speaking in Spanish so the others wouldn’t understand. _“He’s not even white, but he’s just so white, you know?”_

Whiskey’s nose crinkled up and he grinned widely. 

“See? They’re chirping us. I don’t even know what he said, but it had to be a chirp!”

**Author's Note:**

> Let it be known that I am white, and not super familiar with Argentinian or Mexican cultures, so if I've portrayed something wrong, please let me know, because that's the last thing I want to do in my stories.
> 
> EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that I was kind of super wrong about some of the cultural aspects of this fic. So as a disclaimer and clarification: Asados are in fact not an all day event - they can be long, but not day long - and that I had alfajores all wrong; they’re more of a snack than a dessert and are often not made by hand, but store-bought. That’s what I get for being super-American and trying to write other cultures. Thanks to the anon on tumblr that brought all this to my attention! I hate misrepresenting things, so I greatly appreciate being corrected!  
> I still want to write more things that explore their heritage a bit, but I might end up making it more vague so as to not get cultural things totally wrong again. But either way, you'll be seeing much more coming from me in the Check Please fandom. 
> 
> If y'all want, go ahead and follow me on tumblr at _smollminyyard_.


End file.
